Conservation Of Local Varieties Research Articles

Enhancing Farmers’ Seed Systems through Empowerment of Women: A Case Study from China

Maintaining farmer’s seed systems is important to secure the adaptive capacity both ecologically and socially for global food systems, and to secure genetic diversity. In a mountain village of southwest China, a Participatory Action Research Team has carried out action research for more than 20 years to support women's participation in participatory breeding and to enhance the farmers’ seed system. In this case study, the team assisted women in the conservation of local varieties and establishment of community seed banks to enhance farmers’ seed systems. The women-led agricultural cooperatives promoted the economic development of the community and improved the sustainability of farmers’ seed system through eco-circular agriculture and the community supported agriculture (CSA) model. In this participatory process, the empowerment of women improved women's comprehensive ability and provided the guarantee of human resources for enhancing farmers' seed system. Multi-stakeholder processes also extended important support to this model work.

Diversification for Livelihood Security: Experiences from Major Coconut Growing Countries

This paper presents the success of community based organizations in achieving sustainability in marginal coconut holdings through diversification of crops and enterprises along with conservation of local varieties. The project was implemented in 19 communities of 10 coconut growing countries and findings from four major coconut growing countries, which had significant project outcome - India, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam - are discussed in the present paper. All the four major coconut growing countries recorded a significant difference in total household income over the project period. Among the four countries, India and Philippines had a significant difference in mean income derived from intercrops, India and Thailand for livestock integration and India and Vietnam for off-farm activities. Herfindahl index for indicating economic diversity of households revealed a significant diversification of income for India as well as the overall data for the four countries. A higher level of education and more available land also positively influenced total income. In general, improvements in income were better with bigger-sized farms and households, with male household heads. The overall data revealed significant improvement in food and nutritional security with clearest impacts in India and Philippines due to project efforts. Participation of women in trainings and interventions was the highest in India, followed by Thailand.